Gionco ISKA MMA Night Cancelled At Last Minute
Fight Cancelled
An hour ago I just got an email with a message that just floored me. Gionco International has announced at the last minute that the ISKA BC championship and 5 MMA bouts scheduled for tonight, Friday January 29, 2010, has been cancelled, a decision made by Mr. Gionco. It seems that there was a question related to the pro or amateur status of Victor Wang of Posener’s Pankration & Kickboxing. As such, there is an issue of contention from the City of Vancouver which cannot allow this fight, the main event. Cancel the main event, cancel the night. Gionco regrets having to take this action, and refunds are in the works for all ticket holders.
Update
The fight did go on after all. I hear that the hot fight of the night was Josh Jauncey, with a 1st round TKO.
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WTF? They just looked into his status as a fighter? Whatever happened to the show must go on?? This is bad publicity for mma
I found out by going to the Versus21 gym to spar tonight instead, that lo and behold, the event WAS on after all MINUS two fights – the main event and another, Adam Blanchette vs a guy who pulled out last night. I had decided to spar instead of going to the event, so that is what I did. I actually wanted to shoot that fight night.
The fighter in question was actually checked on his fighter status under MMA listings and cleared. An anonymous source sent a picture of this fighter holding a cheque from a Muay Thai fight he had in Thailand. This forced the promoter to remove him from the show. Another fighter was 11lbs over weight and his opponents trainer deiced to pull out of the fight. Aside from that the event was a success, 10 fights went on as planned and everyone seemed to enjoy the event regardless.
Saying “this is bad for MMA” is whats adding fuel to the fire here, try getting some facts from an actual source before making accusations based on second hand information and we should be able to keep things running smoothly for MMA in BC.
@Alan
thanks for your comments. Can you cite your sources, where you heard that this fighter had a photo from a pro Muay Thai fight? Also, it was an ISKA Kickboxing fight, not an MMA fight. Where did you hear that the trainer pulled out the fighter from the other fight?
thanks.